How do you approach motor management?
Although it encompasses much more, electrical motor management is frequently linked to motor maintenance. It covers numerous mechanical, electrical, and maintenance issues that end users, equipment manufacturers, and designers must deal with. Schneider Electric provides assistance with sustainable motor integration in the electrical system and the industrial process by using its broad range, competences, and know-how.
Your motor and electrical installation can be designed to perfection with the help of effective motor management. You can use the same basic strategy for all applications. It will prevent production losses while in operation and save installation costs.
Which key levers are involved in that? This post will cover the fundamentals.
There are components in each of the four blocks that link them to one another. The equipment in the three blocks before the motor should be chosen carefully by the designer in order to achieve proper motor functioning, minimize installation costs, and ensure that the motor's operation has the least negative effect on the electrical supply and parallel loads.
Analyze the application
The load (such as a gas compressor, pump, fan, conveyor belt, etc.) and its operating characteristics in relation to the industrial process to which it belongs are the application.
The lord's relationship to both speed and inertia define it. diverse types of torque, such as quadratic, linear, constant, and decreasing, are used in diverse applications. Additionally, the suitability of certain motor controls is limited by inertia. However, everything, including speed control, synchronization of the operation with other applications in the same process, and starting and stopping, can be altered to suit the needs of the industrial process.
To ensure that you have fully comprehended the application, you must take into account each of them. This is the secret to not going overboard with the final answer.
Select motor control
After the limitations of the application are understood, you may come up with an appropriate and economical motor control solution. Low voltage and medium voltage applications may demand different solutions, depending on the needs of the application and the characteristics of the motor.
Research is frequently conducted on switchgear-integrated contactors or circuit breakers, soft starters, autotransformers, and variable speed motors. A variable speed drive is the best option if you require speed control, synchronization with other processes, or if you think energy savings are important. If not, the emphasis will be on starting the motor. A progressive start solution will be needed if there are essential motors, poor networks, or frequent motor starts. You will save money on motor maintenance and lessen restrictions on parallel loads at startup even though it might cost more than a basic contactor or circuit breaker.
Ultimately, traditional motor starters are the most cost-effective to integrate and work well in the majority of situations.
Ensure motor protection
Overloading and malfunctions are related to motor protection. Your installation and motor need to be protected, either by the variable speed drive or protection relays. Aim to choose features based on actual needs; for example, most motors just need basic protection against overload and phase or earth failure. The only transformers used in this system are current ones. Voltage transformers enable power, frequency, and under- and overvoltage monitoring for more essential motors. This is an expensive approach that may result in more cubicles being installed and increased installation effort. Of course, there are even more sophisticated safeguards, such as differential, whose use is dependent on the situation.
Guarantee the power quality
Parallel loads and the motor are impacted by power quality. In an industrial system, power factor and harmonics need usually be taken into account. Both have to do with motor control; for variable speed drives, harmonics must be checked, and for motor starters, power factor. Never undervalue this subject. Although power quality problems don't often show up right away, they can affect a variety of equipment types. Here are some solutions that can assist you. You may easily handle harmonics from multiple-speed drives in parallel with the aid of active filters. Although significantly less expensive, passive filters are less efficient. Additionally, you can choose low harmonic drives to address the problem at its source, particularly with larger ones. The greatest method for improving power factor is to use capacitor banks.
Manage motor assets
The final stage of effective motor control is this. Monitoring the motor and load helps to avoid production losses, emergency repair, and the emergence of failures. Predictive maintenance can be achieved in a number of ways, including vibration monitoring, insulation condition monitoring, and motor and load monitoring using voltage and current measurements. Connecting these sensors to the supervisory SCADA system is crucial in order to schedule maintenance tasks and receive early warning of emerging defects. This monitoring can also be done by drives that are services-oriented.
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